How fasting may be good for the brain

• Autores: Clare Wilson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3123, 2017, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A stomach hormone that stimulates appetite seems to promote the growth of new brain cells and protect them from the effects of ageing--and may explain why some people say that fasting makes them feel sharper. Jeffrey Davies at Swansea University and his team have found evidence that ghrelin can stimulate brain cells to divide and multiply, a process called neurogenesis. When they added the hormone to mouse brain cells grown in a dish, it switched on a gene known to trigger neurogenesis. If the same happens in animals, this could be how ghrelin affects memory, says Davies, whose work was presented at the British Neuroscience Association conference this month.